IPL 2019, KXIP vs SRH, Who Said What: World reacts as Kings XI Punjab beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 6 wickets
Both Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kings XI Punjab entered this match on the back of painful defeats and were looking to get back to winning ways, but it was the home team that emerged triumphant in the end.
Sunrisers' batsmen, after Jonny Bairstow's early dismissal, struggled to score runs at a quick pace. Even David Warner's half-century could not take SRH to a par score. If not for Deepak Hooda's 3-ball 14 at the end, Sunrisers would not have reached the 150-mark.
During the chase, Rashid Khan dismissed Chris Gayle off his very first ball, but a 114-run partnership between KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal ensured that KXIP were firmly in the driver's seat.
Even after the three quick wickets of Mayank Agarwal, David Miller, and Mandeep Singh, Sunrisers were never really in the match as KL Rahul, with his 53-ball 71, ensured that his team came away with the two points.
Here's how the world reacted to Punjab's win over Hyderabad:
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain: Of course it is hard but I am pretty happy with the way we bowled with the dew around. It is a bit difficult to bowl yorkers and slower balls, but given the dew, we executed our plans pretty well.
The bowling plans depend on the length of the boundaries. When we came to bowl we kept the dew factor out of our minds and all we wanted to do was stretch it to the last over. It is a good thing to get a break now, we can assess what we have done so far.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Kings XI Punjab captain: Too close for comfort. We have had really close games, the biggest positive for me is there is scope for improvement. It will be really harsh to say that we conceded 100 runs in the last 11 overs. The plans were exectued really well.
The crowd have been splendid this year and it's a massive boost for us. It was always in our plans, Mujeeb knows Mohali very well and as a spinner, you need to know the lengths and speeds to bowl at.
Sometimes the figures don't do justice, but I think Mujeeb bowled well today. You do use spinners with the new ball and Mujeeb has done it all his life for Afghanistan. And it was a good match-up between Bairstow and Mujeeb.
KL Rahul, Man of the Match: Didn't start off the way I wanted in the first couple of games. Now, I'm just enjoying my batting and happy to end up on the winning side. Been playing with Chris for a long time and really enjoy batting with Mayank.
The batting group has done well so far. The way Mayank came out and the way he was striking even against Mumbai gives me a little bit of time to get set.
Mayank Agarwal: It was 18 balls and 19 runs to win and someone had to take a chance. We didn't do it easily, but happy to get two points. We were obviously backing ourselves with 11 needed off 6 balls despite an experienced bowler like Nabi bowling the final over.
We enjoy batting with each other (batting with Rahul). When I walked out to bat, the plan was to get a 50-60 run partnership. He [Rahul] was there till the end to see off the chase.
Ian Bishop:
RP Singh:
Aakash Chopra:
Manoj Tiwary:
Hemang Badani:
Boria Majumdar:
Ayaz Memon:
Gaurav Kalra:
Vikram Sathaye:
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